Sils Nietzsche Colloquium: "Politics and Religion"

Those who strive to separate religion and politics are increasingly finding themselves on the defensive. The idea, for example, of the struggle against evil—which is said to be rooted in the true faith—is no longer found solely in political Islam, but increasingly in liberal democracies as well, whether among esoteric conspiracy theorists or fundamentalists of all kinds. This phenomenon includes the resurgence of debates on political theology—long thought to be dead—as well as apocalyptic visions of a coming apocalypse fueled by climate change, AI, war, or pandemics. Against this backdrop, we would like to revisit Nietzsche’s *The Antichrist*, his most radical engagement with religion and its politics. The Basel philologist himself had already declared that religions do not die: “they merely transfigure themselves.” In *The Antichrist*, this insight culminates in a sigh: “Nearly two millennia, and not a single new god!” The Christian God—that “hybrid, decaying construct of nothingness, concept, and contradiction”—becomes, for him, the quintessential instrument of a power grab orchestrated through fake news. Paul fabricates an anti-gospel out of the Good News, one that distorts the “Savior” “for propaganda purposes,” which “tyrannizes the masses” and “forms herds.” This rhetoric of the revaluation of all values, taken to its extreme in the Antichrist, is provocative. Close readings should help us better understand the difficult relationship between religion and politics, especially in light of the current situation.

The colloquium is open to the public and is aimed not only at specialists but also at a general interested audience.

The events—lectures, discussions, and reading groups—can be attended individually.

The detailed program is available in the PDF.


Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.